Patna: In a major setback to the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) government in Bihar, the Patna High Court Tuesday directed the state government not to use the government publicity campaign for the “image building” of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The court asked the government to instead use its campaign to make the common man aware about the its schemes.
Nagrik Adhikar Manch, an NGO, and Right to Information Act activist Shiv Prakash Rai filed a writ petition alleging “gross misuse of public money” in a political campaign by the state government. Under the campaign nicknamed ‘Badh Chala Bihar (Bihar marching ahead)’, the state government has rolled out 400 high-tech vehicles fitted with audio-video system across the state praising the achievements of the Nitish Kumar government ahead of the upcoming state polls.
“The publicity vehicles will not be indulged in image-building exercise of the chief minister. They should only educate the masses about the development schemes launched by the state government for their welfare,” court reportedly told the state government. The court also directed Bihar not to play any audio’videao focusing on the chief minister or any of his ministers during the campaign.
In his petition, Rai had also alleged that the government was doing all this to win votes for JD-U in the upcoming assembly elections likely to be held in September-October. He contended that all 400 vehicles were purchased without seeking any tenders and described it as a “gross misuse of public funds”.
The campaign had been launched with much fanfare by Kumar last month to ensure extensive public participation to seek feedback from the masses. The government’s plan was to draft new development policies and produce “Bihar@2025” vision document based on the valuable feedbacks from the masses.
Initially, the plan hit obstacles when the Election Commission put a temporary stay on the programme citing model code violations in view of the recently-held Bihar Legislative Council polls.
The state’s Information and Public Relations Department (IPRD) is piloting the project aimed at reaching out to the people settled in 40,000 villages across the state.
Earlier senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, too, had smelt a big scam in the government’s campaign alleging Kumar was misusing the government machinery for electoral purposes. To substantiate his allegations, Modi explained how the plan expenditure budget of the IPRD registered a quantum jump to Rs900 million (Dh51.7 million) in the election year 2015-16 in comparison to only Rs180 million in 2014-15. He also alleged the work of this campaign was allotted to a start-up company.
The court also has taken a very serious note of the large-scale rowdyism displayed on the streets during the daylong Bihar shutdown called by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), an alliance partner of the Kumar-led JD-U government, on Monday and asked the chief secretary to explain, “Was this shutdown supported by the state government? How a person convicted by a court can give a call for shutdown?”
The court took suo motu notice against this after a High Court judge, Rakesh Kumar, reached the court late by half an hour owing to blockade by the activists of the RJD, which is led by Lalu Prasad. The chief secretary has been asked to give its reply within a week.